Friday, September 02, 2011

That said, if you interpret the data in standard ways, the tea party responses betrayed no more racial suspicion than those of tea party opponents. Can we talk? As she screeched, cavorted and yelled, this pretty much made its way over Joan’s name-calling head.

Tea party supporters gave lower ratings to all groups. That said, they favored their own demographic group by roughly the same proportion as tea party opponents did. By the way, how would you answer the question they were asked? Would you say that “almost all” blacks (or almost all whites) are intelligent? Trustworthy? Where would you rate those groups on that seven-point scale?

For ourselves, we wouldn’t answer that question. It’s too full of air.

Back to the latest professors. We think they have behaved very badly in this current episode. Based on their column and their TV appearances, we’d make a second, heretical claim—we’d suggest that these professors just may not be all that sharp. We know, we know! They’re from the best schools! Wand we liberals love it when such professors let us shout our favorite claims at the folk in the other tribe. How can something that feels so good possibly be so bad?

Sorry. Our professors are often rather weak-minded. Have we really not noticed this yet?

Hey rubes, we hear the professors saying. Take our society’s saddest song and make it that much worse.

People need to take charges like racism a lot more seriously -- that's when they're made and before making them.

I agree with Somerby on this. And my parents do. I have written before about how my parents wanted us to think before we made a charge of racism. If we did (and we did) and we were four little Black kids, where do Joan Walsh, Chris Matthews and others -- all White -- get off just making the charge willy-nilly?

It's a really important post and I hope you will read it all in full.

And speaking of important posts, "4 men, 1 woman" went up this morning and Ann really did a great job with it so please make a point to check that out.

Friday, September 2, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Troy Yocum completes his Hike for our Heroes tomorrow in Louisville, Human Rights Watch calls out the bombing of northern Iraq, additional info about the 2006 massacre of an Iraqi family by US forces, and more.

Starting in the US, Hike for our Heroes is a non-profit started by Iraq War veteran Troy Yocum who is hiking across the country to raise awareness and money for veterans issues. He began the walk last April. From the Facebook page:

Iraq War Veteran Troy Yocum, his wife Mareike and Emmie the super dog are hiking 7,000 miles across America to help military families in need. They took their first steps of the 16-month cross-country quest on April 17, 2010. Backed by corporate sponsors, many volunteers and support members, Team Hike for our Heroes/Drum Hike are taking on the challenge of raising needed funds by hiking 7000 miles across America. The journey will take 16 months passing through 31 states and 38 large cities. The team will have to average over 20 miles a day while enduring each season. Funds donated go through The Wish Upon A Hero Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization that seeks to supports the community of individuals working online who grant the needs and wants of others making a wish. We believe that no wish is too large, no hero is too small and that everyone can become a hero. The idea for the hike has been evolving since Troy joined the Army in 2001 but it is now when our economy is struggling and military families are in most need that he and his family will put one foot in front of another to connect and help struggling families. Help our mission by making a donation today!

The hike that began in Louisville, Kentucky over a year and a half ago is scheduled to conclude there this Saturday at approximately 1:30 p.m. Ken Neuhauser (Louisville Courier-Journal) notes, "Coincidentally, Louisville native and Iraq war veteran Troy Yocum will complete his 'Hike for Our Heroes' campaign at 1:30 p.m. Saturday across the street at the Louisville Slugger Museum, where he began his 7,000-mile cross-country trek in April 2010. His accomplishment will be recognized as part of the Founder's Day celebration." Devin Katayama (WFPL) reports:

Now he is getting close and he said when he arrives at the finish line at the Louisville Slugger Museum this weekend, he expects a few thousand people to greet him.
"I thought I could finish all 7,880 miles in 15 months and instead we're coming into Louisville around a month and a half late. And that's not a failure in my book. I take from this that perseverance is key to accomplishing any goal and I've been working extra hard this year to make it all the way to the finish line. It's almost surreal to be this close to home. I just passed a sign that said 33 miles and that feels really good," said Yocum.

Late last night, Troy Tweeted, "Feels good to be closing on what has been an incredible journey!" That's tomorrow at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon. His Tweets today include:

Hailed as a victorious milestone, the achievement merely reveals the failure and disgrace of the Iraq War. [. . .] Milestones apparently don't have to consider civilian deaths, which reached 155 in August.

Celeste Headlee: Also with us is Rossana Cambron whose son Arturo Cambron is serving his third term in Iraq so that's the opinion of a retired army col Rossana, what's your opinion as a mom? Does it make you feel the situation in Iraq is getting safer?

Rossana Cambron: It's a difficult question to answer because if I say "yes" people get the illusion that they can kind of rest, they apply it to their current situation. But as a mother who has a son in the war it only brings it down just a short notch to the concern I feel and the worry I feel. It doesn't really make a significant difference in how much I worry about my son and his safety --

Celeste Headlee: Well --

Rossana Cambron: -- in the overall scheme.

Celeste Headlee: -- have you noticed any change in the past few months in his messages to you when he talks to you? Does he seem to feel like things have gotten improved or safer there?

Rossana Cambron: Well if we compare it to his first deployment which was late '06, definitely there's less combat, there's less mission where he goes out and he doesn't come back and mention maybe a snippet of what he may have experienced. But, again, I don't want to leave the illusion that it's a great relief, that I've stopped worrying or that I can stop not looking out of my window for somebody that's waiting to give me the bad news or walking up my door -- or things like that. It's not like that. It's just a -- shave off a thin layer of the worry that I have every day, the concern I have every day.

That's 262 dead and 855 injured. Iraqi Body Count counted 395 civilians killed (our 262 count is all killed, not just civilians -- the 262 leaves out Turkish and PKK claims on how many PKK fighters were killed due to the fact that the two sets of number conflict).

AFP notes that the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense released their figures for the month and are insisting only 239 Iraqis died in August ("155 civilians, 45 people and 39 soldiers"). But they've been undercounting forever. And with the exception of a pushback (from AFP) earlier this summer, the press just spits out the 'official' count -- from two ministries that don't even have Ministers. (Nouri cannot appoint a minister. He can nominate one. Parliament then decides on the nominee. If Parliament doesn't decide, there's no minister for that department.)

I'm not a fan of Alyona Minkovski or The Alyona Show (if needed, Ava and I can go into that at Third) but there's limited coverage of the WikiLeak released State Dept cable about the 2006 slaughter of an Iraqi family. Of the three choices I'm aware of that are radio or TV, her show was the strongest. She spoke with blogger Kevin Gosztola and we'll skip the whole Christopher Columbus claim of discovery of something already in the public sphere. We'll also skip the b.s. that doesn't address the cable. (But we will note when you yack and yack about others defocusing, why don't you yourself focus.) Excerpt:

Alyona Minkovski: Yeah can you give us a few more of the details that have been released in this cable about this raid?

Kevin Gosztola: Right, in this cable it's a communications log to the Mission in Geneva and he basically placed an inquiry, asking a number of questions about information he had received about multinational forces raid going into a home and, as you said in the set-up of your segment, five children were killed and four women were killed. And they were taken outside of the home and they were lined up and they were handcuffed -- they were in handcuffs -- and they were executed. And the autopsies show from the morgue they were able to see that they were shot in the head and that they were handcuffed. And then afterwards, a[n] airstrike came along and demolished the home so there wasn't any evidence left for any investigators to go [. . .]

And that's about all that was wroth it. Of course there was evidence even with the house demolished. That was the best of the three and, yes, that is very sad. John Glazer (Antiwar.com) wrote about the cable earlier this week noting the dead killed in the 2006 raid:

And this is news and should be treated as such but I want to get back to the Christopher Columbus issue. John Glaser has written on the raid this week and done it very well. If he wanted to claim credit, I wouldn't bat an eye, though I doubt Glaser would take credit for doing more than he did. But to hear the blogger quoted above and the infotainment presenter go on and on about his big discovery and how now we know about a raid --now? Click here for Matthew Schofield's March 19, 2006 report for Knight Ridder Newspapers and this is Schofield's opening:

Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.

A U.S. military spokesman, Major Tim Keefe, said that the U.S. military has no information to support the allegations and that he had not heard of them before a reporter brought them to his attention Sunday.

MATTHEWSCHOFIELD: Well, the story, as you and Juan just outlined it, pretty much goes through the basics of the story. We've talked quite a bit further in the last couple days with people surrounding the story. But what we have is a divergence on the story between the two -- there are two accounts. There's a U.S. military account, and then there's an Iraqi police account of what happened. As you know, the U.S. military account is that after showing up and getting into a shootout to get into this house, the house collapsed during the shootout. People were killed either in the shootout or by the collapsing house. They left. They found four bodies and left. They found this suspect. They arrested him. And that's pretty much that story. The other story is that the house was standing when the U.S. troops went in. They were herded into one room -- eleven people herded into one room, executed. U.S. troops then blew up the house and left. We were talking with the police officer who was first on the scene earlier today. He explained the scene of arriving. He said they waited until U.S. troops had left the area and it was safe to go in. When they arrived at the house, it was in rubble. I don't know if you've seen the photos of the remains of the house, but there was very little standing. He said they expected to find bodies under the rubble. Instead, what they found was in one room of the house, in one corner of one room, there was a single man who had been shot in the head. Directly across the room from him against the other wall were ten people, ranging from his 75-year-old mother-in-law to a six-month-old child, also several three-year-olds -- a couple three-year-olds, a couple five-year-olds, and four other -- three other women.

Lined up, they were covered, and they had all been shot. According to the doctor we talked to today, they had all been shot in the head, in the chest. A number of -- you know, generally, some of them were shot several times. The doctor said it's very difficult to determine exactly what kind of caliber gun they were shot with. He said the entry wounds were generally small and round, the exit wounds were generally very large. But they were lined up along one wall. There was a blanket over the top of them, and they were under the rubble, so when the police arrived, and residents came to help them start digging in, they came across the blankets. They came across the blankets. They picked the blankets up. They say, at that point, that the hands were handcuffed in front of the Iraqis. They had been handcuffed and shot. And the Iraqi assumption is that they were shot in front of the man across the room. They came to be facing each other. There is nothing to corroborate that. The U.S. is now investigating this matter, along with the Haditha matter. That's kind of where we stand right now.

And here's how Democracy Now! covered it in their headlines on March 16, 2006:

US Strikes Blamed for Death of Iraqi Family MembersMeanwhile, a US military attack in the Iraqi town of Balad is being blamed for the deaths of at least a dozen members of the same family. The dead include five children and six women. The Associated Press is reporting the family's house was flattened by an airstrike from a US helicopter. The victims were wrapped in blankets and driven to the Tikrit General Hospital. Ahmed Khalaf, the brother of one of the victims, said: "The dead family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children. The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death."

What is new is a development emerging today. Lara Jakes and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) lead with, "Negotiations to keep U.S. troops in Iraq came under new strain Friday in the wake of WikiLeaks' release of a U.N. letter alleging that an Iraqi family was handcuffed and shot in the head in a 2006 raid by American forces -- not accidentally killed in an airstrike." Donald Macintyre and Jerome Taylor (Independent) note, "The incident is raised in a letter from Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Mr Alston's letter to US officials, which went unanswered, challenges the American military version of events. It says that autopsies carried out in the nearby city of Tikrit showed the victims had been handcuffed and shot in the head. They included a woman in her 70s and a five-month-old. The US military had said that the troops seized an al-Qa'ida suspect from a first floor room after fierce fighting left the house in ruins. US officials originally said five people had been killed, although they later accepted a higher toll of 11." Annie Gowen (Washington Post) adds that Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson Ali al-Moussawi is stating that the investigation into what happened in Ishaqi will be reopened as a result of the cable. We'll ignore the rhetoric of the spokesperson and note Nouri has some sort of a viral outrage that comes and goes. Now he's outraged. But this slaughter happened a month before he became prime minister-designate (the first time, April 2006) and a month after he was prime minister (May 2006), the US military released their white wash report. In fact, from the June 2nd headlines on Democracy Now!:

Iraqi PM: US Killings of Iraqis "Daily Phenomenon"
Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister has lashed out at the US military over what he has called the "daily phenomenon" of US attacks on Iraqi civilians. In an interview with the New York Times, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said many troops "do not respect the Iraqi people." Maliki went on to say: "They crush them with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion. This is completely unacceptable."

Again, it must be a kind of viral outrage that comes and goes. Monday's snapshot noted, "Over the weekend, Al Rafidayn reported that the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has refused to meet with Nouri al-Maliki and other politicians. For the last 8 weeks, al-Sistani has refused them. Why? His clerics say that he feels the people's needs are not being addressed and that the government has failed to deliver basic services and to reduce corruption." Aswat al-Iraq reports today Ahmed al-Safi, the Grand Ayatollah's representative, called out today "the absence of trust among political entities" (and it's seen as if the criticism was coming from the Grand Ayatollah). Meanwhile the Great Iraqi Revolution and other youth activists are gearing up for September 9th when they resume protests in Baghdad's Tahrir Square (and elsewhere in Iraq as well). Aswat al-Iraq notes that today Baghdad saw a smaller protest -- "citizens and civil activists" -- calling for US fores to leave, for an end to corruption and for better public services.

Yesim Comert and Ivan Watson (CNN -- link has text and video) reported yesterday afternoon on Kurds protesting in Istanbul. Riot police were sent in, stones and "petrol bombs" were hurled, tear gas was utilized. The reporters note, "The protest in Istanbul Thursday began fairly peacefully. Women in traditional Kurdish costumes led a column of thousands of people, many of them waving BDP flags and carrying banners that said 'peace now immediately' and 'long live the brotherhood of people'." The protests come as these Kurds in Turkey feel the government that has long oppressed them is not following up on the promises of equality and dignity that were made in the last few years. The protests also come as Turkey is in the midst of bombing Kurds in northern Iraq.

Throughout the Iraq War, Turkey has bombed northern Iraq. Starting in 2007, they had approval from Nouri al-Maliki and the US government to conduct the bombings and they also were provided with 'intelligence' by the US military including imagery via US drones flown over the region. As the Turkish press has made clear in the last two weeks, the US continues to provide 'intelligence.' Turkey insists that they are defending themselves from the PKK -- a group of Kurdish people who advocate for and fight for a Kurdish land.

The PKK is one of many Kurdish groups which supports and fights for a Kurdish homeland. Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described them in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk." The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has been a concern to Turkey because they fear that if it ever moves from semi-autonomous to fully independent -- such as if Iraq was to break up into three regions -- then that would encourage the Kurdish population in Turkey. For that reason, Turkey is overly interested in all things Iraq. So much so that they signed an agreement with the US government in 2007 to share intelligence which the Turkish military has been using when launching bomb raids. However, this has not prevented the loss of civilian life in northern Iraq. Back to Aaron Hess, he noted, "The Turkish establishment sees growing Kurdish power in Iraq as one step down the road to a mass separatist movement of Kurds within Turkey itself, fighting to unify a greater Kurdistan. In late October 2007, Turkey's daily newspaper Hurriyet accused the prime minister of the KRG, Massoud Barzani, of turning the 'Kurdish dream' into a 'Turkish nightmare'."

Nouri's been very good about keeping the press out of the PKK camps. The Times of London, which is no longer in Iraq, repeatedly went to the area to report on what was taking place there and visited the rebel camps. Many other outlets just followed Nouri's dictate. Those who did report from the camps were able to demonstrate that (a) this wasn't taking place in hiding and (b) the mountains had other inhabitants as well.

Nouri's turning those mountains in northern Iraq into a no-press zone was very effective in covering up the toil the bombings were taking on civilians in the region.

This go round, what's really different is that the press paid attention to the fact that farmers and shepherds were being displaced, turned into refugees as they were forced to flee their villages due to the bombings. What's really different is that the deaths of civilians are finally getting attention. And when Turkey issues their ridiculous 'we didn't kill those civilians, that bomb must have been dropped by someone else' claim (see "Mars Attacks Iraq"), it only ensures that the bombings receive even more attention.

As long as Turkey could assert that they were just bombing rebels and it was in response to what rebels had done (and as long as everyone agreed to play stupid and pretend that the PKK sprung from the head of Zeus yesterday and that the Turkish government's actions didn't in fact create the PKK), everyone could just focus on how many bombs dropped and the claims by the Turkish military of killed X number of rebels and the holler back from the PKK of 'no, you didn't.'

The Turkish government seems genuinely baffled that something they've been doing repeatedly for years now is all the suddent a hot issue. At the start of this week, New Sabah did an article on some of the Turkish news coverage of the bombings and noted the Turkish government's stated position that the PKK were terrorists and that Iraq must "clean your land of these terrorists or we will do it for you."

That bully talk used to go over well but now as the bombings create refugees -- forcing hundreds of families to flee -- and as the dead includes not only civilians but small children, the bully talk really isn't being applauded by those who once cheered Turkey on.

And it also doesn't help Turkey's case that northern Iraq is also being bombed by the Iranian military who are also targeting Kurdish rebels. So you've got two countries terrorizing the people of Iraq and destroying the land with these bombs -- as in turning into pockmarked fields -- and probably creating long term health issues because these bombs are probably going to effect the environment. [Today the Great Iraqi Revolution notes, "Imagine if we were not bombed with the lethal American weapons, we would not have had hundreds of thousands of malformed and disabled Iraqi children. Again the Iraqi will beat all odds, great voice and performance."] Even without Iran, the bully position that Turkey's government has taken would probably have gotten old by now on its own and people's patience would have worn thin as well. But Turkey truly seemed to believe that they could continue bombing year after year and the international community would never object.

(Beirut) – Iran and Turkey's cross-border attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan have killed at least 10 civilians and displaced hundreds since mid-July 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Some of the attacks may have been carried out without sufficient attempts to ensure minimal impact on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

Both Iran and Turkey say that their military operations, including artillery and aerial bombardments, are aimed at armed groups operating out of Iraqi Kurdistan along the northern and eastern borders. When Human Rights Watch visited those areas in August, Iraqi residents and officials said that many of the targeted areas are purely civilian and are not being used by the armed groups.

Evidence suggests that the regular Iranian bombardments may be an attempt to force Iraqi civilians out of some areas near the Iranian border.

"Year after year, civilians in northern Iraq have suffered from these cross-border attacks, but the situation right now is dire," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Iran and Turkey should do all they can to protect civilians and their property from harm, no matter what the reason for their attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan."

Iran started its cross-border attacks in northern Iraq in mid-July, claiming to be targeting an armed group associated with the Iranian Kurdish Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) operating in the mountainous border region. Beginning on August 18, Turkey carried out attacks across its border with Iraq, targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group affiliated with PJAK that is fighting its own decades-long conflict with Turkey.

Shelling by IranSince mid-July, Iran's operations against PJAK inside or near villages close to the Iranian border have led to the displacement of hundreds of families, caused the deaths of at least three villagers, and wounded an unknown number of people, according to international humanitarian aid organizations, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials, and media reports. Farmers from the border regions told Human Rights Watch in early August that the shelling had damaged their homes and that they saw Iranian soldiers cross the border into Iraq and kill farmers' livestock. The attacks on civilians and their property that they described were similar to attacks documented by Human Rights Watch in June 2010.

Human Rights Watch visited the Choman and Qalat Diza districts and Qasre, Sangasar, and Zharawa subdistricts between July 26 and August 6 and interviewed more than a dozen displaced villagers as well as others in villages still being shelled. All villagers interviewed said that Kurdish armed groups had never been in their areas and that there were no other military targets in the vicinity at any point before or during the shelling. The affected areas are in the Qandil Mountains, along the eastern borders of Erbil and Sulaimaniyaprovinces, in the region administered by the KRG.

In the crowded Gojar tent camp in Sulaimaniya province, Fatima Mahmoud, 70, told Human Rights Watch she fled there with 11 family members in late July, after two Iranian shells struck her house in the village of Sune, 30 kilometers west of Qalat Diza. She said the village mosque and school were also damaged by shelling.

"It has been more than six years that Iran has been shelling our area, but this year, it was unbelievable," she said. "I don't know why Iran is shelling our village – we have never seen any PJAK members at all. I have never seen any [PJAK] members in our village."

Attacks by TurkeyOn August 18, Turkey began a bombing and artillery campaign against the PKK, which it blamed for earlier fatal attacks in Turkey. On August 21, according to Iraqi officials, Turkish warplanes bombed a vehicle carrying civilians. The attack killed seven members of the same extended family according to relatives of those killed, local officials, and media workers. Turkey denied its planes were responsible.

The family group, which included four children, was driving on a highly travelled main roadway in a white 2011 Nissan pickup truck from the village of Bole to Rania to visit relatives. Shamal Hassan told Human Rights Watch on August 29 that the attack instantly killed his wife, Rezan, and his daughters, Solin, two months old, and Sonya, 18 months old. The attack also killed his wife's parents and two other children.

An emotional Hassan told Human Rights Watch, "The attack was so destructive that we couldn't recognize their bodies. I want the international community to hold Turkey accountable. They ruined my life."

Media photos released by multiple Iraqi Kurdish news organizations of the scene corresponded with Hassan's description, and showed charred and disembodied children and adults splayed on the ground near the remnants of a destroyed vehicle. Human Rights Watch could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs. There has been no evidence of any military target in the vicinity.

While the Turkish military said that it has killed more than 145 suspected PKK militants with artillery fire and airstrikes in northern Iraq since August 17, it has denied that its warplanes killed the family, saying only that news footage of the destroyed vehicle was not consistent with damage caused by Turkish aerial bombardment. However, Turkish officials have stated that Turkish warplanes were bombing multiple military targets, such as anti-aircraft guns and ammunitions caches, in the area at the time.

Iraqi political and military officials have repeatedly blamed Turkish warplanes for the attack. An August 28 statement from the KRG stated that "[KRG] President Barzani strongly condemned Turkish military attacks," which it said were responsible for the seven deaths.

Civilian Displacement

Abdulwahid Gwani, mayor of the Choman district, which has been particularly hard-hit by Iranian shelling, told Human Rights Watch that the attacks by Iran and Turkey had cumulatively killed 9 civilians and displaced 325 families from Choman and 500 families in the Sidakan area.

"They [Iran and Turkey] don't differentiate between civilians and armed groups, and the bombardments are more intense compared with last year," Gwani said. "We notice that the Turkish bombardments are more random this year – they used to target specific locations in previous years but now it is kind of arbitrary."

Earlier in August, Gwani and several displaced villagers told Human Rights Watch, the attacks forced hundreds of poor farmers to leave their crops unattended, destroying much of this year's harvest. A number of farmers told Human Rights Watch that because there has been shelling each year during the short planting and harvesting season, they believed it showed an intentional effort to drive civilians from the area by harming their livelihood.

As in past years, aid organizations and local municipalities have struggled to meet the displaced families' basic needs. The Kurdistan government does not keep an official registry of displaced villagers.

The representative of an international humanitarian aid organization working in the affected areas told Human Rights Watch on August 30 that the attacks have led to the displacement of 450 families, but that this number includes only families who have resettled in tent camps, and not those still moving around, staying with their families, or elsewhere. A delegation of Iraqi civil society organizations from Baghdad visited the areas on August 3 and reported the displacement of "up to 750 families from the areas of Choman, Sidi Khan and Haji Omran."

The International Organization for Migration told Human Rights Watch on August 26 that it has so far distributed aid to approximately 295 families in tent camps – 275 families in Sulaimaniya and 20 in Erbil – but that another roughly 300 families from Erbil have been displaced and may require future aid.

Government Reactions

In August, the Iraqi government summoned both Iran's and Turkey's ambassadors in Baghdad because of concern about the operations, and both the Iraqi and KRG parliaments have strongly condemned the attacks.

On July 27, an Iraqi parliamentary official who declined to be named told Human Rights Watch that, during a meeting with a high-level Iranian diplomat that day, the diplomat stressed the "importance to Iran" of creating a buffer zone along the Iranian border "with no residents." The official said that the diplomat also suggested deploying the Iraqi army to the area, instead of the Kurdistan regional forces who now patrol the border, because the Iraqis are not "as close" to the Kurdish residents.

Officials of both the KRG and the central government in Baghdad have told Human Rights Watch in recent weeks that Iran and Turkey have been defiant and dismissive in their private responses. Publicly, both countries contend that they have a right to attack the armed groups inside northern Iraq and both countries deny targeting civilians.

At an August 21 news conference in Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that the militaryoperations "will continue without hesitation when necessary." The governor of Iran's West Azarbaijan Province, Vahid Jalalzadeh, told Iranian state television on August 6 that, "The operation against the group [PJAK] will continue until all members are killed," but called reports of Iranian soldiers crossing into Iraq "rumors."

The PKK and PJAK both openly admit to multiple guerrilla attacks against Turkish or Iranian soldiers in a self-proclaimed struggle for ethnic equality for Kurds in those countries. Both are considered terrorist organizations by the United States and European Union.

"The evidence suggests that Turkey and Iran are not doing what they need to do to make sure their attacks have a minimum impact on civilians, and in the case of Iran, it is at least quite possibly deliberately targeting civilians," Stork said. "Regardless of their reasons for carrying out attacks, they need to respect international humanitarian law."

Just like their neighbours in other countries, young Kurdish people in Iraq are using the Internet and social media to call for political action. A recent protest in Erbil against Turkish bombing in the area saw protests swiftly organised: NIQASH was there from the beginning. Shko Nawroly knows only too well why he is taking part in a protest against Turkish military ingressions into Iraq. "I was born in Iran because my parents were Peshmergas [Kurdish freedom fighters] and they had to run away from Saddam's bombing," explained Nawroly, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's persecution of the Kurdish people in Iraq's north. "So I know how it feels when you have to flee to survive bombing and air attacks. And I know how it feels when your family is massacred. And this is why I decided to take part in organizing the protests against the bombing raids carried out by the Turkish warplanes on Kurdish soil," the 23-year-old said passionately. "And as a human being it's a moral responsibility." But unlike their parents and grandparents who fought on the mountains, today's Kurdish youth are using education, technology, the Internet and social networks as well as peaceful rallies to prevent history repeating itself.

While the United States and the other NATO countries express their satisfaction over the destruction of the North African state of Libya that they are engineering, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the assault on Tripoli and other parts of the country since Aug. 20.

So-called rebel units operating under the banner of the Transitional National Council, after being transported into the capital of Tripoli, are engaging in widespread abuse that includes looting, the destruction of public property and the killing of government loyalists and civilians.

On Aug. 23, the Bab al-Aziziyah compound formerly inhabited by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his family was bombed again by NATO forces. After severe damage to the massive structure and its surroundings, the TNC rebels entered the area. They were filmed by international media outlets breaking up and destroying everything in sight and later carting away ornaments, consumer goods, furniture and art work.

This orgy of destruction and theft was portrayed in the West as symbolic of the fall of the Libyan government. The compound had been bombed for months by U.S. and NATO warplanes. It was the scene of numerous assassination attempts against Gadhafi and other government officials.

The war has been characterized by large-scale air strikes since March 19. These criminal acts have been carried out jointly by NATO fighter jets, special forces and intelligence units from the U.S., Britain, France, Canada and Qatar, as well as the Western-backed rebels.

Humanitarian crisis spreads

Since March 19, U.S. and NATO forces have executed more than 20,000 sorties over the country, resulting in at least 7,500 air strikes. This coupled with sabotage, theft and murder by the rebels, beginning on Feb. 17, has made the humanitarian situation in Libya and its neighbors reach critical proportions.

The country’s oil industry, factories, water supply systems, food storage facilities, communication installations and hospitals were targeted during the ongoing war, which has lasted more than six months. As a result the country has suffered growing shortages of medicines, food, technical supplies and potable water.

The Middle East North Africa Financial Network said the war has created the worst social conditions in Libya since the revolution of 1969. Ali Hamed, a supporter of the attacks against the government, nevertheless revealed that in Tripoli: “For nearly four days, we have no water, no electricity, no petrol. ... We worry especially about the water.” (menafn.com, Aug. 29)

The article goes on to admit: “The few open stores here have mostly bare shelves. People stand in line for bread, pay greatly inflated prices for black-market fuel and scrounge for water to drink or bathe. They still hear daily bursts of gunfire.”

Many residents of the capital fear the city could be completely without water in a few days. Many neighborhoods in and around Tripoli already have no water or electricity. The sickness and deaths are reaching critical proportions.

The rebel forces were trained by NATO to seize the city, not run it. A TNC official said: “We don’t know the electricity problem, we don’t know the water problem, we don’t know the communication problem. In the next few days we will have answers.” (Guardian [Britain], Aug. 27)

One of the most gruesome scenes resulting from the NATO bombing and the TNC rebel onslaught on Tripoli was the discovery of hundreds of bodies at a hospital that had been attacked by the invading opposition forces.

The British air force played a major role in the bombing of Tripoli. The state-owned British Broadcasting Corp. reported on the mass deaths at the hospital: “More than 200 decomposing bodies have been found abandoned at a hospital in a district of the Libyan capital Tripoli that has seen fierce fighting. A BBC correspondent found corpses of men, women and children on beds and in the corridors of Abu Salim’s hospital. ...

“Our correspondent says the stench was appalling. People were trying to clean up some of the mess and return the hospital to normality, but that was an impossible task because of the sheer number of bodies, he adds.” (BBC, Aug. 26)

Reports are surfacing of other massacres throughout the country. The TNC forces and NATO are trying to blame the supporters of the Libyan government, but these claims remain largely unsubstantiated.

However, what is clear is the central role of the U.S. and NATO in the destruction of Libya, a country that had enjoyed the highest standard of living in Africa and had achieved tremendous gains in the technical and scientific fields over the last four decades. Today it has been tremendously set back by Western-imposed sanctions, a naval blockade, blanket bombings and media vilification.

Fighting continues for control of country

Although the TNC rebels and their NATO backers have been proclaiming victory over the government and people of Libya since Aug. 21, fighting still rages on throughout the country. In Tripoli, the security situation remains unsettled as loyalist forces remain in defensive postures against the rebel units.

The rebels are facing formidable resistance in their efforts to advance on the city of Sirte, Gadhafi’s hometown. TNC officials said they were forced to retreat from positions near Sirte amid a barrage of rockets fired by the Libyan military operating in the region.

Even the BBC admitted that TNC chair Mustafa Abdul Jalil and other leaders are remaining in the east of the country due to continued resistance by loyalist forces in Tripoli and the west.

A British paper reported: “Guerrilla fighters from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya have been advancing towards [Sirte] in recent days, but have so far got only as far as the edge of Bin Jawad, a town around 100 miles away. Fawzi Bukatif, a rebel commander, said attempts to persuade the Sirte loyalists to surrender had so far been fruitless. ‘We are waiting for people in Sirte to come out and talk but we’ve got no answer up to now.’” (Telegraph, Aug. 29)

The Western-backed rebels are still unable to reopen the main highway between Tripoli and neighboring Tunisia — an essential supply route for oil and food.

The rebels have again called upon NATO to intensify its bombing operations over Sirte so they can advance toward the city.

In the port city of Misrata, which has seen heavy fighting for several months, there have been demonstrations against the TNC rebels over their appointment as security administrator of a former Libyan governmental official who defected from Gadhafi. The TNC is by no means a cohesive alliance. Without the backing of the U.S. and NATO, its poorly trained units would have been defeated early on.

Further evidence of the total reliance upon NATO by the TNC rebels was revealed when their chairman, Abdel Jalil, was quoted on August 29 from Qatar as saying, “Even after the fighting ends, we still need logistical and military support from NATO.” Backing up this line of thinking, U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, who heads the NATO joint operations command, told a news conference in Doha, “We believe the Gaddafi regime is near collapse, and we’re committed to seeing the operation through to its conclusion.” (Financial Times, August 29)

As fighting continues inside Libya, the United Nations Security Council, which is dominated by the same imperialist powers that have attacked and invaded the country, has drawn up plans to intervene with a so-called peacekeeping force. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made it clear that the role of the “peacekeepers” would be to disarm the Libyan people when he commented that the country was “awash with small arms.” The Gadhafi government had given out weapons to the people when the imperialist attack started, showing its confidence in their support.

African Union refuses to recognize rebels

Despite enormous pressure coming from the U.S. and NATO, the 54-member African Union has refused to recognize the rebel TNC forces as the legitimate rulers of Libya. Meeting at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the continental organization is still demanding that a government of national unity be established in Libya that would include loyalists from the Gadhafi government.

The AU since March 11 has called for a ceasefire, the removal of foreign forces from the country, a halt to the bombing by the U.S. and NATO and the holding of internationally supervised elections. The rebels have not been elected by anyone inside of Libya and therefore their presence in the capital is not considered legitimate by the AU.

The U.S.-NATO military alliance and the rebels have rejected all overtures by the AU to mediate in the Libya crisis.

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Monday, September 1, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Alan Grayson wants credit (don't point out he didn't end the war), another prison break, Troy Yocum is days away from completing his hike, Vermont suffers due to the Iraq War and more.

Starting in the US where an Iraq War veteran is finishing an odyssey. Hike for our Heroes is a non-profit started by Iraq War veteran Troy Yocum to raise awareness and money for veterans issues. "Hike" because part of raising awareness is reaching out and Troy went around the country -- by foot -- reaching out. His hike began in April of 2010. Tamara Evans (WDRB) reports that this Saturday, September 3rd, around 1:00 pm, Troy's hike is set to end in Louisville where it all started ("He's expected to cross the finish line at the Louisville Slugger Museum between 1:00-1:30.") Troy notes it is 16 months and a week that he's been hiking across the country. During that time, he's met more people than he can count and raised serious attention to issues facing veterans while, at the same time, raising a half-million dollars to help veterans in need. Matt Frassica (Louisville Courier-Journal) reports that in the sixteen months, Troy has:

been interviewed by Diane Sawyer and taken the field with baseball teams like the Yankees and the Reds, thanks to help from sponsor Louisville Slugger.

In New York, the Yankees donated $10,000, and the CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods, Mitchell Modell, pledged $260,000 to the cause. Customers at Modell's and Party City retailers have the option to contribute at the cash register, and those sponsors will present Yocum with the resulting donations on Sept. 14 in New York.

Most importantly, for Yocum, his fundraising has allowed Wish Upon a Hero to help 60 military families, providing things like food and supplies for tornado survivors and a trip to space camp for the son of a soldier who died.

Brown University's Costs of War project estimates that the financial burden to the US of these wars is between $3.2trn and $4trn. So far, 1,752 US service personnel have been killed in Afghanistan and 4,474 in Iraq. The UK has lost 380 soldiers in Afghanistan and 179 in Iraq. The civilian death toll in Iraq has been estimated at anything between 120,000 and one million; the comparable figure in Afghanistan is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. So many lives lost and so many resources squandered - and for what? These sacrifices haven't made us feel any more secure.

And a real life cost of the war can be seen by the residents of Vermont currently. Tony Rutherford (Huntington News) reports, "Hurricane Irene has devastated Vermont; however, the National Guard has no helicopters in the state to help its citizens. The choppers, along with the men and women, are in Iraq." As the week began, Sam Hemingway (Burlington Free Press) noted, "Eight helicopters on loan from the Illinois National Guard were expected to arrive Tuesday night in Vermont to help the Vermont National Guard deliver food, medicine, water and other supplies to 13 Vermont towns cut off from the rest of the state in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene." Yesterday evening (5:56 p.m. EST), Governor Peter Shumlin's office was noting utility outages throughout the state. US Senator Patrick Leahy is from and represents the state of Vermont. His office has posted photos online of the flooding and damages to Vermont. Bernie Sanders is Vermont's other US Senator and he's currently in Vermont and has stated, "This is a devastating moment for Vermont." His office noted there were "12,000 power outages in the state" yesterday and that "Four teams from the Environmental Protection Agency, Vermont's Hazardous Materials team and Department of Environmental Conservation are visiting the hardest hit areas of the state to make preliminary environmental hazard assessments. Three of the teams are traeling by ground, one by air. The teams will be reviewing water and wastewater hazards. In particular, they will be looking for chemicals and other hazardous materials that have leaked, or are in danger of doing so."

Vermont could use the members of their National Guard and those helicopters. They don't belong in an illegal war, they belong in the US. Barack obama didn't just continue the illegal Iraq War he continued the 'new,' the 'novel' concept that a state's emergency forces, organized to protect a state, can instead be sent overseas and into combat. All of Barack's pathetic defenders better grasp that if their Christ-child truly was different from George W. Bush, the first thing he would have done would have been said "no more" to sending the Guard overseas. It's the "National Guard." It's not the "International Police Force."

MARGARET WARNER: Now, waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money during a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. After a three-year investigation, a Congressionally mandated commission yesterday issued a blunt finding, that between $31 billion and $60 billion has been misspent on the two wars. That's up to one-quarter of the entire $206 billion outsourced to private contractors for everything from security to food preparation to reconstruction projects. The last 10 years have brought more than 260,000 such contractors to work in war zones, where they sometimes outnumbered soldiers. The panel urged quick action on 15 recommendations to tighten controls.

She discussed the findings with Commission on Wartime Contracting member Dov Zakheim. Excerpt:

MARGARET WARNER: Could that problem even be exasperated as the U.S. draws its troops down from Iraq in the next couple of years, or three years, Afghanistan, and, say, State Department or AID become even more dependent on private contractors for security, for example?

DOV ZAKHEIM: Absolutely.In fact, there are two ways that the problem is getting worse. One is the challenge of starting projects that the either the Iraqi government or the Afghan government cannot sustain. We built a power plant -- excuse me -- a water treatment plant in Iraq that has intermittent power and that is not being used. We built a prison that is not being used. The Iraqis don't want it. We have built schools in Afghanistan without teachers; health clinics, over 130 of them, in Iraq without the proper equipment and supplies. So you have got the problem that we're building stuff that won't be maintained. And, at the same time, if you rely on security contractors in places where there's corruption, where there's danger, where maybe the contractors themselves are a danger, then you have got a problem as well. And we have recommended that, instead of simply focusing on the narrow issue of whether this is something government can or cannot do, you focus on the risk involved. Then we will clearly identify places where we just shouldn't have contractors.

Yesterday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting released its final report.

The Commission reported that between $31 billion and $62 billion of the tax money spent on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan has been wasted. It also said that between $10 billion and $19 billion of what contractors billed and received was fraudulent. In fact, $360 million of our tax dollars went straight to... the Taliban.

Wow. Who could have imagined that?

Well... me.

When I saw that the Bush administration was doing nothing about fraud in Iraq, I revived a law going back to the Civil War that allowed whistleblowers to bring lawsuits in the name of the U.S. government. I filed case after case, which were promptly greeted by the Bush administration with gag orders -- gag orders that they kept in place for years. They didn't want any more bad news coming out of Iraq.

So I went on CNN, spoke to the New York Times and the Washington Post, and told America whatever I could say without violating those gag orders. And when the Bush administration finally let one case out from under those gag orders -- and declined to prosecute it -- I took that case to trial, and won a $14 million judgment. It was the third-largest judgment for whistleblowers in the 143-year history of that law.

Of course, if he hadn't stuck so close to Barack -- who was increasingly unpopular in Grayson's district by the end of 2009 and that only became more so in the lead up to the 2010 elections -- he might not have felt his only way to win was to destroy his opponent with some really bad commercials (I especially like the silence around the one where "liberal hero" Alan Grayson called his opponent a "draft dodger" -- right out of the Nixon playbook) and he might still be in Congress. Then again, if he were, he'd either have to speak out against the continued Iraq War or break the hearts of his fan club.

In Iraq, there's been another prison break, this time in Mosul. Bushra Jhui (AP) reports that 35 people ar said to have "tunneled their way out" with 21 being caught and 14 remaining at large. AFP provides this recent context, "Officials said on August 6 that four prisoners and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, during which eight inmates escaped. Six Iraqi police and 11 inmates were killed in a Baghdad jail mutiny in May, while 12 suspected Al-Qaeda members escaped from prison in the southern city of Basra in mid-January. At least two of the Basra escapees have been recaptured." Alsumaria TV adds, "A similar incident occurred in Nineveh on April 3 as 23 prisoners escaped from Al Ghazalni prison in southern Mosul. On April 9 as well, 5 prisoners escaped a prison in Al Shifaa' region, eastern Mosul." Reuters notes it was "a temporary jail" and that the prisoners are said to have made their way out via "a sewage pipe." Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "A senior officer in the Mosul police department said the inmates had used metal plates and iron bars to dig nearly 150 feet out of the jail. He asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to discuss the escape." Aswat al-Iraq cites Abdul-Rahim al-Shimmary as stating the escapees "were charged according to the Iraqi Criminal Law's Article-4 - Terrorism."

Who was in charge of this facility?

The Ministry of the Interior -- one of three security ministries that Nouri's failed to appoint a minister too. Before December ended, Nouri was supposed to have named a full Cabinet -- all the ministers. Nearly nine months later, he still hasn't done that (Political Stalemate II). How many prison breaks will there be before Nouri's held accountable for refusing to do his job -- his Constitutionally mandated job?

At what point does his inaction result in leaving his reputation in permanent disarray?

It really is something that the Parliament hasn't moved for a vote of no confidence as Nouri has refused to do his job. And his refusal is really something when you consider how Nouri created the nine month Political Stalemate I to hold onto the job he now refuses to do.

What more does Nouri have to do to be run out of office? How about look the other way while foreign forces slaughter Iraqi children?

John Glaser: And you know what? An occupation can get really ugly. And what unfortunately ends up happing in an occupation is that people get so desensitized, they get used to the war, that they end up not paying attention to really serious things. I just posted a blog just before this interview about WikiLeaks cables that reveled a War Crime on the part of US soldiers in Iraq. In 2006, they raided a home and ended up killing a couple of guys, four women and three children -- on eof whom was three-years-old. All had hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head. That's a War Crime.

McClatchy Newspapers provides a photograph of some of the ded children wrapped in blankets after the assault. Matthew Schofield (McClatchy Newspapers) adds, "The cable closely tracks what neighbors told reporters for Knight Ridder at the time. (McClatchy purchased Knight Ridder in spring 2006.) Those neighbors said the U.S. troops had approached the house at 2:30 a.m. and a firefight ensued. In addition to exchanging gunfire with someone in the house, the American troops were supported by helicopter gunships, which fired on the house." Schofield's repot notes that the US refused to reply to the United Nations and that "Iraq's government also hadn't been forthcoming." That's according to the UN's Philip Alston who maintains that he started a dialogue on March 17, 2006 and can track it up to 2010. In April 2006, Nouri al-Maliki became prime minister and has been ever since. So it would appear Nouri al-Maliki took part in the cover up.

The St. Petersburg Times editorial board calls for an inquiry, "A diplomatic cable includes evidence that U.S. troops in Iraq executed at least 10 civilians, including five children. The cable also suggests the incident was covered up. Although the U.S. military already has cleared American troops of any wrongdoing, the Obama administration has a duty to reopen the case. Ignoring the allegations or chalking the incident up to the fog of war is not an option if the United States wants to stand as a model to Iraq's nascent democracy."

Meanwhile will the US stay or leave at the end of the year? To get to the latest we have to remember 2008 and wonder when you're exposed as a liar, a known liar, why any outlet would publish you? From The Daily Caller:

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama's relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama's conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists."

Here's the thing, Spencer Ackerman -- the fey 'Atackerman' -- he's White. He's encouraging false cries of racism to help his beloved Barck but he's not the one who has to live with the fall out from false cries of racism. He's not an African-American woman or man who will have to go into a court room and prove discrimination. His decision to cry racism falsely, to use it as a political tool, is beyond sad.

That he still works in the media would be a puzzler were it not for the fact that he works at what many see as a CIA-cut out, Wired. Best friends with all the snitches, even ones paid by the government. Spency wants to weigh in today. Thomas E. Ricks' better half wants you to know that Iraqi politicians want weapons, they do not want US soldiers.

How does Spence know that? It apparently came to him in the midst of last night's wet dream about Barack. Even if you eliminate the Kurds from the discussion -- can't imagine why you would when they have such influence in Iraq -- you've still got independents, liberals and Natioanl Alliance members who've spoken to the Arabic press. Ah, yes, Spencer, the great wise Spencer, can't read Arabic.

So Spence spits out what he casually pulls from US media. Or maybe he doesn't. Maybe it's a lie for the 2012 election? Now that we know he'll lie to get a candidate elected, lie to the people and encourage other journalists to do the same, why would we ever trust a word he says?

If you're foolish enough to trust the man fired by The New Republic (how bad do you have to be to be fired by The New Republic, come on), then that's on you.

But if you can read Arabic or you know someone who can, look at this Dar Addustour article. There were several like it at the star of this week in Iraqi publications. Who's in Iraq right now? Foreign forces? US troops. But, remember, Barack insists combat operations are over and that all combat troops pulled out of Iraq last year. In 2010.

Funny, that's not how the Iraqi press plays it. In the article, you see the US troops currently in Iraq being referred to as "combat troops." "Trainers" -- not "comba troops" -- is what Iraq wants now. And administration friends state that "trainers" also won't require a new SOFA. In fact, "trainers" might be able to be signed off on by Nouri alone. (Like he did the UN mandate in 2006 and 2007.) Nouri -- who is already painting the planned September 9th protest in Baghdad as a conspiracy to overthrow him -- is known for his paranoia. It's been his hallmark since 2006. And he didn't need to be paranoid to know that without US forces on the ground these last years, he wouldn't have hung on as prime minister. The puppet needs the occupation troops.

Logic and motive don't enter into Spencer's world unless it's a US presidential election and he needs to paint an enemey falsely as a racist -- then half-baked logic and twisted motives enter Spencer's world. But, hey, he can at least fleetingly wonder if Nouri might be playing people iwht public statements?

Might be?

Turning to the world of legal news, Robert Snell (Detroit News) reports, "A Sterling Heights man and others stole rental vehicles and sold them in Iraq after spiriting the rides across the U.S.-Canada border, federal investigators said Wednesday. Adnan Hana was arrested along with 12 other people this week, capping a nearly two-year investigation dubbed 'Operation Hot Wheels' by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." Tresa Baldas (Detroit Free Press) adds, "According to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday, the international rental-car scam involved luxury sedans and SUVs valued at from $25,000 to more than $60,000. The defendants legitimately rented the vehicles -- including Dodge Journeys, Toyota Avalons, a Chevy Tahoe and an Infiniti -- from national rental agencies in Michigan, Ohio and California, the indictment said." Reuters notes, "Five of the vehicles the gang allegedly reported stolen were intercepted on shipping containers in Montreal bound for Iraq, authorities said." Tony Perry (Los Angeles Times) reminds, "Two weeks ago, San Diego authorities announced the arrest of 60 people allegedly involved in a drug- and gun-smuggling operation centered at a social club in El Cajon for Chaldeans -- Iraqi Christians -- who have emigrated to eastern San Diego County."

About Me

I'm a black working mother. I love to laugh and between work and raising kids, I need a good laugh. I'm also a community member of The Common Ills. Shout outs to any Common Ills community members stopping by. Big shout out to C.I. for all the help getting this started. I am not married to Thomas Friedman, credit me with better taste, please. This site is a parody.